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Saturday, June 29, 2013

The Whole Enchilada. Literally.

I have some catching up to do! The past four days have been intense. On every level. Like I was saying the other day, this week I attended Advance Placement training at a local university. I'm a Spanish teacher, and now I have my certification to teach AP Spanish. I have no plans to do this in the immediate future, but you never know!

Although the days were very long, the workshop was really worthwhile. Probably the best thing about it was the professor. She was a fabulous woman from Austin, Texas, and one of the best presenters I've ever seen in my almost 20 years of teaching.

I had to leave the house every morning around 6:45am. Although the distance between my house and the university is not far, the traffic at that time is crazy. I wasn't hungry that early in the morning, so I had my normal coffee with half a scoop of Unjury Chocolate Splendor protein powder. I also added a little bit of fat-free half-and-half. Delicious! I am really liking this combo. Our first break every morning was at 10:00am, and I had my favorite string cheese every day. Kraft Jalapeño.

Sorry for the repetition, but lunch was the same every day. Good ol' Charlie Tuna. I have to admit, I don't want to speak to Charlie for a while. Although he served me well, I'm a little bit tired of him. :)

Dealing with lunch was pretty interesting. The workshop provided free lunch passes to the cafeteria, and I'm sure I could have found something if I looked, but I didn't feel really ready to tackle this two and a half weeks post-op. The first day it was no problem. After everyone left for lunch, I stayed in the classroom and made my tuna salad lunch kit. As the days went on however, and I begin to make friends and meet people, they begin to ask me "why aren't you coming to the cafeteria with us?" The first person to ask was my professor. So… I told her the whole story. Her response was absolutely incredible. She said some really kind things to me and was very encouraging and supportive of my decision to have surgery. Each day from that point on she would tell me how proud she was of me and how she couldn't wait to get a photo of me at my goal weight. Although she lives in Austin, we talked about making plans to meet in Dallas sometime in the future. We have a lot in common, and one of the main things is our love of shopping. We discovered that we share a favorite mall...Northpark in Dallas. Dallas is just about midway for both of us. I really hope we get to do that someday.

Other people were just as supportive when the subject came up. I have to say I was really feeling the love this week. And it was great.

On Tuesday and Wednesday night for dinner, I had my new fave Green Chile Cheese Puff. I had it with a little bit of avocado each night. It was absolutely wonderful to come home to a dinner that was already made. I was so tired. My friend Jordan has a theory that food is usually better the second day anyway, and she was absolutely right in this case. I was really thrilled at how much avocado 56 grams truly is. I weighed it out carefully each time, and couldn't believe the amount for the calories. Avocado is a favorite of mine, and although it doesn't have much protein, it adds so much to all my favorite meals.

But let me tell you about Thursday night. I had my first restaurant experience since surgery! Speaking of Dallas, my friends and I are going next weekend to see a little-known artist that you may have heard of… Beyoncé! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. We met at Cantina Laredo to plan the trip and talk about what we want to do while we're there. I carefully scanned the menu ahead of time and I decided that I was going to ask for chicken enchiladas in a tomatillo sauce. The enchiladas came with rice and a side of delicious, steamed zucchini. I learned a really important lesson here. In the future, I'm always going to ask what the side items are if they aren't listed on the menu. These weren't. The zucchini was great, but I didn't touch the rice. I've heard that rice can be problematic, so I avoided it.

I was so busy talking and having fun with my friends, that I completely forgot to take a picture of the beautiful plate. You all know what Enchiladas Verdes look like, I'm sure. I ate one enchilada and two small chips with salsa. I felt satisfied, but not stuffed.

On Friday, I had my normal coffee with Chocolate Splendor, my Kraft jalapeño cheese stick for snack, the tuna salad for lunch, and for dinner I had the other enchilada and the zucchini.

I'm starting to notice that I don't stay full as long. I'm sure this is completely normal since I haven't had my first fill yet. It is scheduled for July 24th. I also have a feeling that eating one whole enchilada is not going to something I'll be able to do in the future. What do you guys think?